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Online Holiday Sales Reach $37B

E-retailers see a 15% sales increase in last two months of 2011.

It looks like online trading won the popularity contest this holiday season as buyers made their holiday purchases from home.

The 2011 holiday season saw a spike in retail e-commerce spending compared to last year and beyond, according to a report by comScore.

The report, which measures online spending for the months of November and December, shows that the numbers this year are 15 percent higher than last year, at $37.2 billion. During the same period last year, sales reached $32.4 billion.

“With brick-and-mortar holiday retail estimated to have grown about 4 percent this year, it’s clear that e-commerce continues to gain market share from traditional retail due to the attractiveness of the Internet’s convenience and lower prices,” says Gian Fulgoni, comScore chairman.

Cyber Monday held its title as the biggest shopping day of the season, when buyers spent $1.25 billion online. In 2010, only one day between November and December reached the $1 billion mark, whereas this year 10 days surpassed that number.

“Consumers were especially attracted to the deals and discounts available through digital channels—particularly free shipping, which occurred on well over half of transactions this season,” Fulgoni says.


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